SPR s Doug Nadvornick reports.
There are signs that Covid pandemic life is moving closer to what used to be normal.
Dan Barth from Frontier Behavioral Health in Spokane says that became clear to him last weekend at a cafe in Spokane Valley.
“There was a group of women, there was five of them sitting on a couch. They were all obviously vaccinated. They didn’t have to wear masks. They were sitting there socializing and they were talking about what they’d been through over the last year and they were laughing and it gave me a sense that the trajectory of where we are on seemed to be a good one, he said.
CHARLESTON A federal lawsuit against top education officials alleging they tried to get a lobbyist fired has been settled and the lawsuit dismissed.
Jason Webb, a longtime lobbyist, alleged in the lawsuit that former State Superintendent Steven Paine called officials for ACT Inc., one of Webb s clients, several times in 2018 and 2019 and threatened to stop doing business with ACT if it did not fire Webb.
“It is our understanding that the recommendation to settle was made for reasons of economic efficiency and is not an admission of liability,” the department said in a statement, WV MetroNews reported. The department denied the claims Webb made.
For The Intelligencer
CHARLESTON A lawsuit brought by a lobbyist against a former state schools superintendent and a current Department of Education official was dismissed Wednesday after a settlement between the parties was reached.
According to a document filed Wednesday with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia, lobbyist Jason Webb, former state superintendent of schools Steve Paine, and Assistant State Superintendent of Schools Jan Barth agreed to a dismissal of the federal lawsuit.
According to the filing, both parties agreed to a dismissal of the lawsuit with prejudice, meaning the case cannot be re-filed. Both parties agreed to bear their own costs and fees associated with the lawsuit.
File photo
PAINE Former State Superintendent of Schools Steve Paine.
CHARLESTON A lawsuit brought by a lobbyist against a former state schools superintendent and a current Department of Education official was dismissed Wednesday after a settlement between the parties was reached.
According to a document filed Wednesday with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia, lobbyist Jason Webb, former state superintendent of schools Steve Paine, and Assistant State Superintendent of Schools Jan Barth agreed to a dismissal of the federal lawsuit.
According to the filing, both parties agreed to a dismissal of the lawsuit with prejudice, meaning the case cannot be re-filed. Both parties agreed to bear their own costs and fees associated with the lawsuit.